After tagging along on family holidays for three years, our writer finally got back on the road on a cycling tour in Italy — with the help of Andrew

"Where are you taking Mummy this year?” That was what did it. That was what I
overheard my daughter saying to my son. They’d diligently taken me along on
their holidays with the children for the three years since my husband died.
I realised that they saw me as a dependant. Well, not any more. I told them
I’d be out of touch for eight days, and no, I wasn’t telling them where I
was going.

We’d always been keen cyclists, David and I, but in the past few years my bike
had only seen the route to the shops. So it was with a little trepidation
that I arrived for a week’s cycling from Florence, via Siena, to
Montepulciano. But the rest of the group, all singletons, looked nervous
too. We were all in the same boat.

The first day was hard but invigorating. Cycling to Castellina, we travelled